Uneventful Start

Well we have finally started our journey west for the summer season and guess what?? So far we've had TWO uneventful days on the road! Just the way we like them :-)!!

We left Homosassa Tuesday morning. We did get an earlier start than originally planned though. Many of you know that we keep our coach in a storage facility about five minutes away from our house. As we were repacking and restocking everything on Monday, we noticed a sign saying that there was going to be a storage unit auction occurring Tuesday morning at 8:30. Being worried that there would be vehicles parked willy nilly blocking our way to get out we made sure we got down there nice and early hitched up and were on Highway 19 heading north by 8:00AM. Proud of us, we never get going that early :-).

Tuesday was one of our longer travel days that we have planned, 340 miles. It was an easy ride up Highway 19 to where it meets I-10, then just steady riding down I-10 which we'll follow all the way to San Antonio. We stopped for the night in Holt, FL, at a very nice and easy campground right off I10, Eagle's Landing RV Park. It was great for an overnight stop,  all sites are level pull-throughs, full hookups and plenty of room. It's very reasonably priced as well, $25.00 tax included, with a $2.00 discount for Good Sam. I can totally recommend this campground, and the folks in the office were so friendly.

Today we continued our drive, 227 miles to arrive at The French Quarter RV Resort. We are staying here for two nights. Now I really should explain this choice :-). It's right in the city, a five minute walk from the French Quarter. It's much more expensive than we normally consider. I looked at several campgrounds not in the city, at less expensive rates, but ultimately decided to splurge this time for a couple of reasons. We are close enough here to walk to the French Quarter which is our destination this trip. That saves us from driving the insane streets and paying for parking. Also, we can walk and sight see with the dogs, take them back to the coach to relax, and then we can go off to eat....after all one must eat while in the French Quarter! If we had stayed at a campground on the other side of the Lake Pontchartrain bridge, we wouldn't have been easily able to do that. It would be an easy 30 minute drive each way.

I will post pictures later. The campground is completely walled in, and is what you would expect from an urban campground....mostly pavement, with a few grass patches. It is gated and you need to punch a code to open the gates to get back in. The office, upon checking in, feels like the lobby of some posh hotel :-). I can't honestly say that I've ever checked into a campground office with quite the same feel to it. The sites are all large, both long and wide, and beautifully paved with brickwork. It is very easy to get to, about a quarter of a mile of I10 (and as you can see I10 from your site, it is also rather noisy with traffic noise; life is full of compromises.)

As soon as we got things set up, we all took off for a walk to the French Quarter. Casey and Honey were quite ready to go for a walk after riding for two days :-). My initial goal was to find a mid-afternoon snack, specifically the famous beignets. I was told the best were at Cafe Du Monde, so that's where we headed. They did not disappoint :-). I have no pictures, as this was a preliminary foray, to get the lay of the land so to speak. The streets were also very crowded, and we wanted to see how Honey would do walking in a crowd (she did very well). As always both the puppies received much admiration :-). After our walk, we returned to the campground, the puppies had their dinner, and we took off to have a fine New Orleans dinner. We ended up at The Famous Gumbo Pot and had a very good meal. I tried the chicken and andouille sausage gumbo and the roast beef po boy sandwich. Al had a shrimp cocktail, the creole sampler that was comprised of jambalaya, crawfish etouffe and shrimp creole and for dessert, bananas foster pie. It was all very good, and we would recommend it. I was surprised to read some negative reviews of the restaurant, because we had a nice server, fast service, and good food. What else do you need?

Tomorrow we plan on doing an early morning walk to take pictures, hopefully before the crowded mob descends upon the area. And next on the food list: muffelettas!!